hiv blowjob

May 9, 2005

is it possible to contract hiv from a blow job?

Response from Dr. Wohl

Ah, the old 'can I get HIV from a blow job' question. There are some questions that come up so frequently that I if I were not so lazy I would just create an answer that I could paste in the answer box - a sort of form letter that would serve as a reply.

"Dear Worried", it might start, "can I or can I not get/transmit HIV from oral sex is a question that many have asked since the early dayas when it became evident a virus was at the root of the HIV epidemic. While there have been case reports of individuals who swear on a stack of [fill in religious text of choice] that all they ever did that "one time" was perform oral sex yet have been diagnosed with HIV infection, studies of large numbers of discordant couples (where one of the pair is HIV+ and the other HIV negative) suggest that such transmission, if it happens at all, is rare.

My belief is that oral sex is an inefficient way to transmit HIV. Is it completely impossible? Probably not. So, with that knowledge, and recognizing that it is difficult to make the taste of condom-grade latex palatable, you and your informed partner can make a decision."

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